All who are initiated in any genuine tradition gravitate towards Guru Purnima – the celebration of the Full Moon dedicated to honouring the Guru. It is the Guru’s gravity pull towards which we gravitate, for even the word ‘great’ is derived from the same original verb root from which the word ‘Guru’ is derived.

The greatness of the Guru is in that he, like a mother, gestates us in the womb of his knowledge. The First Guru, Hiranyagarbha, is the Golden Womb of the universe in that all knowledge dwells in that cosmic womb.

When the Guru takes our foetus-like, undeveloped consciousness, and keeps it in the spacious womb of his own consciousness, thereby we become his offspring.

This relationship in the Tradition is the most sacred. We may pay our debt to our physical parents by honouring and serving them. From the Guru, there is no such expectation because the value of knowledge can never be assessed.

The purpose of this knowledge in the spiritual traditions is simply moksha, liberation. Further, the purpose of passing on the knowledge is for the compassion towards all living beings, to liberate them from their suffering, to provide them with a boat to cross the rivers of sorrow.

Every time we recite the ‘tryambakam’…mantra, the central prayer in that mantra is a single word

MUKSHEEYA

May I be liberated.

This should be our aspiration and longing day and night, muksheeya!

When we have such aspiration, the Guru himself will gravitate towards us and draw us into the field of his gravity pull. He will keep us there until our wish ‘muksheeya’ has been fulfilled.

At the celebration of this Guru Purnima, I wish to assure you that those who are initiated in our Tradition do remain thus enwombed. May these foetuses grow to full maturity of liberation.

Swami Veda Bharati
Guru Purnima, 3 July 2012